Jersey City resident Derrick Williams was acquitted this morning of all charges in the stabbing of a Jersey City man outside a Bergen Avenue apartment on Sept. 29, 2011.

The jury resumed deliberations shortly after 9:30 a.m. this morning and returned the not gulty verdict about a hour later.

Deliberations had started yesterday at 1 p.m. following closing statements.

Williams was accused of stabbing the 31-year-old man, bringing him within "inches of his life," in the words of Assistant Prosecutor Howard Bell.

The man who was stabbed sustained a pulmonary brain injury as a result of the incident.

Williams, 51, and his attorney stated throughout the five-day trial that the stabbing was an act of self-defense.

Williams, who took the stand Tuesday, said that he stabbed the man with a kitchen knife because he "feared" for the lives of himself and his son.

"His purpose wasn't to go out and hurt somebody, his purpose was to be prepared to protect himself and his son," Williams's attorney, Christopher Kazlau, said during his closing argument yesterday morning.

Bell argues that the stabbing was committed in retaliation for an earlier incident.